The riddle of the development of tobacco warehouses in Northern Greece
Postcard with the background of the tobacco factories of Kavala.
The article by Mr. Nikos Vatopoulos in “K”, entitled “The tobacco warehouses of the Greek North, a world famous” (19.1.2022), for the preserved tobacco warehouses in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, raises a very serious and multidimensional issue. These are building complexes that occupy entire building blocks in the center of Kavala and Xanthi, creating pockets of poverty and urban delinquency, anything but attractive for life in the city. Abandonment and deterioration gradually prevent any thought of protecting the architectural heritage and make it prohibitive to renovate and reuse the vast building stock.
I stand in particular on the “embarrassment of authorities and individuals towards a special type of cultural heritage”. The bibliography so far, even the excellent exhibition of February – Rentetzi at the Benaki Museum (2014), capture this embarrassment. How can you reconcile the great past with the present? And how will you overcome the problems by shaping new perspectives for the space?
The puzzle is not easily solved. Size, in terms of size and area, is a fascinating challenge for urban planners, but at the same time requires huge sums of money. In Kavala there are 59 tobacco warehouses, with 40 of them being declared protected. The same applies in other cities. Once upon a time, of course, their number was much higher. However, dozens were demolished after the 60’s and in their place “beautiful” apartment buildings were erected, according to the standards of the time. The state itself gave the slogan of “modernization”, building new government buildings (courts, universities, schools, hospitals, administrations) instead of even utilizing privately owned tobacco warehouses.
In addition, the establishment of strict rules for the protection of buildings turned into rigidity and the preservation of the whole of each building – both externally and internally – ended up leading to its destruction rather than its salvation. All the old tobacco warehouses have wooden floors, beams and columns and since they were storage or craft spaces the conditions are low ceilings, which makes modern uses difficult, such as offices. The post-war ones, although built of reinforced concrete, have small openings and not at all outrageous. All the descriptions follow the footsteps of the basic presentation report of 1986, which states that the tobacco warehouses can be used as parking lots, swimming pools and gyms, schools and kindergartens, theaters, shopping malls, health centers, public services!
Decades ago, the Municipality of Kavala bought an emblematic tobacco warehouse of the 19th century, which it discovered to turn into a cultural center, a tobacco museum and a museum of Polygnotos Vagis, while the renovation of Kapnergati Square in front of it has already been contracted. Also, it was included in the General Urban Plan of 2013 the provision to prepare a special urban study for all tobacco warehouses in order to investigate their appropriate uses. He could suggest declassifying some tobacco warehouses that do not have remarkable features – thus freeing up urban green spaces in exchange for a transfer of the building factor or other objects of the State or the municipality.
Recently, a research team of the same. Prof. Costa Laleni of the University of Thessaly completed a pilot study with the funding of the Green Fund and the support of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace on “Regeneration of areas, reuse of buildings, business plan for the development of tobacco warehouses Drama, Kavala, Xanthi” . Modern methods of data enrichment and use add value to these buildings.
Completed interventions are done with money and not with pure intentions. In order to raise funds, a “corporate” scheme could be proposed by all stakeholders (owners, collective bodies, local and regional government) to manage the project in an organized manner and with timeless stability. The “partners” will mobilize institutions, the Kavaliotes of the Diaspora, the State itself, while the first resources will come from compensation for the creation of green spaces and from the sale or concession and commercial exploitation of public tobacco warehouses. For once, at last, let the Greek State seem generous to the city, in order to progress and develop by cultivating the relationship with its past fruitfully and ingeniously.
* Mr. Konstantinos Simitsis is the Deputy Regional Director for Development of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.
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